Old video from Bangladesh falsely shared as CRPF detains TMC Workers ahead of West Bengal assembly election

The West Bengal Assembly elections are set to take place in two phases on April 23 and April 29, 2026, for the 294-member Legislative Assembly. Against this backdrop, there is a video showing two individuals attacking a shop with an axe, and then two army men passing by stop and take the weapons from both attackers; it is going viral on social media. The users who share the video claim that it shows the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) physically handling Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers ahead of the assembly elections.

Let’s check the truth

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Fact check:

We started our investigation by conducting a keyword and reverse image search on Google, and the results led us to a video uploaded on 17 August 2024 by the YouTube channel of the Bangladeshi media outlet ‘Dhaka Post.’ The video’s title and description indicate that the incident took place in Faridpur, where the army apprehended the men for vandalizing a shop. The caption states, “Two youth workers were breaking the shop and caught by the army Faridpur Dhaka Post”. This indicates that the video is not recent and not related to India.

Upon further search we found several news reports published by Bangladeshi media featuring keyframes from the viral video. As per these reports, the incident occurred on 14 August 2024 in Boalmari Upazila, Faridpur District, Bangladesh. The reports further stated that there was a dispute between two factions of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

“It is reported that the incident took place when the workers of one side vandalized the shops of the other side after the clash between the two sides of BNP in Faridpur’s Boalmari. The arrested are Youth Dal workers of Boalmari Md. Tutul Hossain (28) and Dukhu Mia (30). On Thursday (15 August) they were sent to prison after showing their arrest. In this regard, the officer-in-charge (OC) of Boalmari police station Shahidul Islam said, ‘Those two people in the viral video were arrested by the army and handed over to us. Later, they were sent to jail through the court on Thursday (August 15), showing their arrest in the Sanjay Saha case.” You can read the news here and here. 

So, it is clear that a video showing people surrendering to the Bangladesh Army is falsely shared, linking to the West Bengal election.

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. This video shows people caught by the army during shop vandalism in Bangladesh in 2024. It has no link to the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.